Maryland officials said the container ship lost power and rammed into the Key Bridge, causing the span to buckle into the river below and plunging a construction crew and several vehicles into the dangerously cold waters.
Healey was asked about the devastating Key Bridge collapse during a late-morning appearance on Boston Public Radio with hosts Jim Braude and Margery Eagan.
“It’s absolutely devastating and heartbreaking. I was actually supposed to be meeting with [Maryland] Gov. Moore this morning,” Healey said. “He had to fly back in the middle of the night to attend to this and I have been in touch with him. I have offered our support as a state to Maryland and to Baltimore. My thoughts are with all of the victims and survivors – all those affected by this tragedy.”
“There are a few things that I will note. Number one, we continue to inspect our bridges here in Massachusetts. The Tobin was inspected, for example, as recently as a couple of months ago,” Healey said. “Number two, Massachusetts does not have the same kind of cargo traffic that they have through the Port of Baltimore. We used to, but in recent years that has changed and much of it is happening with cargo coming into Massachusetts but not having to pass under bridges.”
In the wake of the collapse, Healey told Braude and Eagan that she plans to meet with the Coast Guard, MassDOT, Massport, and the Massachusetts Maritime Academy.
“Number three, it’s important that we be proactive here...I want to make sure that we are having conversations to make sure that all of our protocols are where they need to be and that we are doing everything we can to ensure the safety of our ports and our bridges,” Healey explained.
After Healey spoke, Massachusetts Highway Administrator Jonathan Gulliver took some time to discuss bridge and port safety and infrastructure in Massachusetts.
“From a standpoint of is there a lot of similarity between Massachusetts and Baltimore. There is not,” said Gulliver.
Gulliver says Massachusetts doesn’t have the same level of cargo traffic as the port of Baltimore but he points out one difference in how ships come and go from port of Boston.
“Tugboats travel with those ships as they travel in and out of the harbor from start to finish,” added Gulliver.
He says the size of the bridges across the Commonwealth aren’t the same either. Of the more than 7,000 bridges across Massachusetts, Gulliver says, only two have similar profiles to the Francis Key Scott Bridge: Tobin Bridge between Boston and Chelsea & Braga Bridge between Fall River and Somerset.
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